THE news hasn't even been out for more than 24 hours but already Tumblr users are threatening to leave the popular blogging platform if Yahoo purchases it.

Earlier today the company announced it had agreed to buy the blogging platform for $1.1 billion, making its owner David Karp one of the wealthiest men in the world.

But Tumblr users won't have any of it.

Many of them say they use the site because it allows them to remain anonymous and doesn't feature any advertising.

Part of the site's appeal is that it has almost zero social engineering. There are no ads or blogs tailored to your interests, so as far as we know it records very little information about its users. Tumblr is one of the last bastions of privacy on the internet.

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Users are concerned the Yahoo! acquisition will inevitably change all that, in order to make the site more profitable.

One Tumblr user wrote: "Dear Yahoo, Please don’t turn this safe haven into a data mine. Our thoughts are not for sale. We came here because we didn’t want to be found. It was safe here. We could be ourselves. It was the last corner of the internet we could truly call our own. Purchasing this site will kill the core of what it is: the last remaining trace of humanity on the web. If you buy this site, we will leave and find somewhere else to start again. We are not for sale. We cannot be bought."

The site has been growing at a rapid rate and last month it hit the 8 billion page views mark, making it one of the top 25 websites in the world according to Quantcast, a milestone for a company completely disinterested in advertising.

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Already people are asking whether Tumblr is the new MySpace. Tech website GigaOM wrote that it's clear Tumblr is not going to be the new Facebook, at least not any time soon.

"Everyone wants to be the next Facebook, which many early observers doubted would ever find a way to make money and now brings in revenues estimated at $2 billion," wrote journalist Matthew Ingram. "But MySpace also grew to massive levels, with more than 76 million users at its peak, and was bought by News Corp for $580 million, only to rapidly decline after it failed to figure out how to make money."

Ingram said that while Tumblr has profited from selling profitable "themes" for blog users, it "hasn’t shown any signs of being able to turn on the revenue tap in the way Facebook has".

"In fact, not that long ago David Karp was saying he had no interest in putting ads on the network," he wrote.

"With $40 million in funding, he may have the luxury of not having to worry about funding for a while, but Tumblr will have to answer that question at some point or risk becoming the next former red-hot growth story."

With users threatening a mass exodus, Yahoo! better think quick and act fast to keep the site popular and profitable.

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The threats come as Yahoo! agreed to a deal to purchase the popular blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The sale is set to make Tumblr founder David Karp, 26, instantly once of the wealthiest tech businessmen in the world.

Tumblr founder David Karp is set to become one of the richest 'techies' in the world. (Photo by Nadine Rupp/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

Yahoo! did not immediately return AFP's calls for confirmation, but CEO Marissa Mayer has scheduled a news conference in New York Monday at which the company said it will unveil "something special."

Reports last week said Yahoo! is eyeing the move to attract more users from the key 18- to 24-year-old age bracket, and that the Internet pioneer sees the fast-growing Tumblr as one of the "coolest" sites with young Internet users.

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Yahoo! has been looking at a range of acquisitions since Ms Mayer took over as chief executive last year and vowed to revive the company, which has faded in the face of competition from Google.

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in New York, Tumblr says it has more than 107 million blogs, 50 billion postings in 12 languages and 175 employees. The website ranking site Alexa lists Tumblr as number 32 in terms of global popularity.

If the acquisition takes place, it would be the biggest for Yahoo! under Ms Mayer and come in the wake of other pricey deals for startups, such as Facebook's acquisition of the photo app Instagram for stock worth $1 billion at the time.

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